6 years in, Sony is bumping up the price of PlayStation Plus

Sony updated a month-old PlayStation Blog post today to outline an impending price hike for its popular PlayStation Plus service that will see the 12-month and 3-month subscription rates increase in the U.S. and Canada starting September 22nd.

It's a small but notable change for the 6-year-old service, the chief selling point of which -- free games for subscribers every month -- has proven to be a boon for some participating developers, even as it has simultaneously given rise to a "I'll get it when it's free" shopping mentality among some subscribers.

When the price hike goes into effect, PlayStation Plus subscribers can expect to pay $59 (instead of $49) for a 12-month subscription and $25 (instead of $18) for a 3-month subscription. The month-to-month rate of $10/month will remain unchanged.

Also, we should point out that this change is slated to take effect not long after Sony's upcoming September 7th press event, where the company is expected to announce (among other things) a slimmer model of the PlayStation 4.